Stuck in the Muck (www.stuckinthemuck.com) began two years ago as a place for farmers to upload and share photos of their equipment stuck in the mud. The site has since evolved to a place where producers can help each other with problems they face while farming in wet fields by leaving a tip in the Getting Unstuck Tips forum.

At Flaman, we believe Stuck in the Muck has created a sense of community among producers. We call it Facebook for farmers – a place where they can share common experiences and have some fun.

This year there were more than 50,000 visits to the website since it re-launched in May and over 155,300 visits since it was first created a year ago. We had 358 people from Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba submit 383 photos and over 1,200 people from across the world visited the site to vote for their favourite pictures.

One photo that got plenty of votes was Shauna Perras’s photo of her “stuck” tractor cake. She won in the Best Overall category.Perras, who has a cattle and grain farm in Montmartre, baked the cake for her nephew Nate’s third birthday. She entered the photo of the 3D cake that’s shaped like a John Deere tractor stuck in the mud when a neighbour suggested it.

“It feels awesome to be a winner,” Perras says. “The community was really great about voting. And Nate just loved the cake.”

Dan Vanbeselaere submitted a picture of a tractor that got stuck by a hired hand while he was seeding his father’s field near Waskada. He won in the Best Stuck Tractor category.

“It was the second time we got stuck that day,” he explains. “We call the mud dinosaur snot because that’s what it looks like. That’s the only place I’ve seen mud like that.”

Vanbeselaere says they had to use a track hoe to drag the tractor backwards through the trench to finally get it out. He entered the contest because he’d never seen anyone stuck that much in a long time. He says he can guarantee he’ll put the new tow rope to good use.

The winning stuck photos will also be featured in a 2012 calendar that will be used as a fundraiser for local charities. Giving back to the community is an important mandate of Flaman. Our company’s founder, Frank Flaman, gives over a million dollars to local and global charities through the Frank Flaman Foundation each year.

Flaman has also drawn three random winners from all of the entries, who will win a tow rope and appear in the calendar. Congratulations to: